Monday, December 16, 2013

The militant Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) staged a coordinated
picketing of Meralco branches as protests against the huge power rate hike intensified
at the grassroots level and spread outside Metro Manila. Meralco branches in Paranaque, Rizal and Cavite
were picketed this morning and afternoon by several hundred workers and urban
poor.

Also today, the PM spokesperson together with leaders of other
groups formally asked for an anti-competition inquiry on Meralco’s rate hike. The
request was filed with the Office for Competition which is under the DOJ and was
created by E.O. 45 series of 2011.

“If competition exists in the power industry then business
interests would collide but under EPIRA, the players collude,” stressed Wilson
Fortaleza, PM spokesperson, as he joined the filing of the request for inquiry
on unfair competition against Meralco and generation companies.

He added that “It is futile to pursue an honest scrutiny of
Meralco’s huge rate hike through the ERC which is totally captured by
monopolists in the power industry. Instead we hope the Office from Competition
can give a fair hearing to the complaint. If PNoy is serious about
investigating Meralco’s hike, then he can do something through the Office for
Competition which is under his authority, unlike the ERC.”

At 10:00 am today, PM members trooped to the Meralco branch
in Tambo, Paranaque and AntipoloCity
in Rizal. Later at 3:00 pm, other PM members in Cavite picketed branches in the towns of
Rosario and Dasmarinas.

In the next few days, PM will continue the series of protests
with pickets in Marilao, Bulacan and GMA, Cavite.

Website

Our Vision

Our dream is a world that gives due importance to the role of the working class and respects the dignity of labor. A social order where the working men and women of the world live together in peace, harmony and progress.Our aspirations lie in the emancipation of labor. A government that is truly of the workers, by the workers and for the workers.

Our hopes rest in a future where social progress thrives not for the benefit of a few people but for the development and richness of the entire humankind. A society that is free from the chains of wage slavery and where oppression does not exist.

Our Mission

Forge the unity of the workers into an independent working class party to organize them as a potent political force in social transformation towards the advancement and protection of labor from the scourge of globalization, establishment of a genuine workers’ government and the emancipation of the working class from capitalist exploitation and wage slavery.

Workers Unite!

The working class is the most important class in society. But, labor will only be a force to reckon with at a time when labor assumes the responsibility of leading the struggle to a decent living - free from exploitation of the propertied elite.

The time has come to rally every underprivileged sector of the society, to take the bull by the head and confront the issues of today. The working class must take an active role in every political exercise presented. The backbone of the independent party must be comprised of the working class with the other marginalized sectors in solidarity.

We must organize politically.

This is our own challenge and we must vow not to shirk from it.

Our future is in our hands, in our unity, in our struggle, in our party.